SANTA ANA – There's nothing separating Laguna Beach and Foothill boys water polo in the latest OC Varsity top-10 poll, and when the Breakers and Knights met head-to-head in the pool on Tuesday, it was easy to see why.

While Laguna Beach never led, it was within a play or two right down to the wire of the nonleague road match. The Breakers had a chance to tie right up until the final buzzer before falling, 8-7.

Nolan Del Toro scored on a counterattack for Laguna Beach with 2:23 left in the fourth quarter to make it 8-7, and the Breakers later called a timeout with possession with 1:10 left. Foothill's Jake Snyder disrupted the Breakers' attack with a steal with 45 seconds left, and the Knights burned the clock down to 19 seconds before giving the Breakers a final opportunity.

Aki Andersen's long-range attempt was tipped by a Foothill player, and the rebound went straight to the Breakers' Jack Dodson, whose backhand skip shot landed just wide of the cage as time expired.

“I think we had the looks we wanted all game,” said Laguna Beach Coach Ethan Damato, whose team is tied for the No. 7 spot in the county with Foothill and Villa Park, but ranked three spots above the Knights in the latest CIF-SS Division 2 poll. “We drew a lot of exclusions and had a lot of chances in the third quarter to, I thought, tie the game or go ahead. We always play really hard, and we play with a lot of energy, so I'm not surprised by that. The guys always fight till the end, and that's a testament to their character.”

Laguna Beach (6-8) never was able to fully atone for a slow start that saw Foothill (8-4) take a 3-0 lead and keep the Breakers scoreless until the 3:18 mark of the second period. But the Breakers did keep it interesting with a third-quarter spurt that included goals from Del Toro and Atherton that cut the lead to 5-4 with 3:09 remaining.

Then Del Toro drove on a counterattack all the way to the front of the goal, but despite a series of pump fakes couldn't sneak the ball past Foothill goalkeeper Matt Miller (11 saves). On Foothill's ensuing possession, Bobby Lee had a shot deflected by Breakers goalkeeper Garrett Hartley, but the ball floated into the cage before Hartley could secure the rebound.

“We've got to execute a lot better if we want to win these games,” Damato said.

Foothill appeared to put the game out of reach early in the fourth with a pair of goals in the first four minutes from Lee and Josh Mehlberger, but Laguna Beach came roaring back with three straight goals from Colladay, Andersen and Del Toro in less than two minutes.

“Foothill's one of the top teams in the division, and I think we had our chances to win today,” said Damato, whose team has gone 1-6 against county-ranked teams during its ambitious nonleague schedule. “We know that we're not that far away from where we want to be come playoff time, but it would be nice to win one of these.”

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